Like many investigations, it started with a tip.
A retired law enforcement source reached out to KHOU 11 investigative reporter Jeremy Rogalski last year, alerting him that the police department at Coffee City, Texas, had hired a “truly dysfunctional” officer.
Little did Rogalski know at the time, the department had more than a dozen officers with criminal backgrounds. Even more had faced discipline at previous law enforcement jobs. KHOU’s monthslong investigation would ultimately uncover myriad issues with the department, from an active warrant for the police chief to an entire division of officers that one expert described as “basically bounty hunters.”
But the first thing Rogalski noticed was the sheer size of the department. Coffee City has a population of 249. The department had 50 officers.
“Fifty cops in a town of 250 — that’s an interesting story,” Rogalski said. “That’s a talker.”
Still, Rogalski and his colleagues on the investigations team weren’t sure whether it was a story for them. For one, Coffee City is more than three hours north of Houston, outside of KHOU’s viewing area. Would their audience even care? Rogalski also recognized that digging into the tip would require a lot of work. He would need to submit dozens of requests for the personnel files for each of the officers.
He decided to do just that. Rogalski made nearly 100 requests to all of the officers’ past departments, asking for their personnel files, including any disciplinary actions and the reasons for their departures. The requests cost roughly $1,000 and resulted in nearly 9,000 documents.
“That’s how we were able to determine that this wasn’t just a story about a small town writing a bunch of tickets,” Rogalski said. “Coffee City, Texas, was a magnet for troubled cops, and more than half of those officers had dubious work histories.”
Those dubious work histories included suspensions, demotions and terminations. KHOU found officers with histories of excessive force, public drunkenness and criminal charges that included aggravated assault and family violence. One officer was fired from their previous job for telling a citizen on Facebook, “You should kill yourself, do the world a favor.”
At the center of KHOU’s investigation was police Chief JohnJay Portillo. After arriving in Coffee City in 2021, he quadrupled the size of the police force, hiring many of the officers with troubled pasts. Portillo, who surprised KHOU reporters when he agreed to sit down for an interview, had a checkered past himself. He failed to mention in his application to become police chief that he had a 2004 DWI charge, for which he failed to appear in court.
Coffee City police Chief JohnJay Portillo surprised KHOU 11 reporters when he agreed to sit down for an interview. (Courtesy: KHOU 11)
Residents of Coffee City deserved to know who was serving their community, Rogalski said. “If the sign says ‘protect and serve’ on the side of your squad car, well, do you want somebody with an arrest for family violence answering the call when you have a domestic situation? Do you want somebody who’s pulling you over for a DWI who he himself had a DWI? If someone was suspended, demoted, terminated or dishonorably discharged from another department, do you want them serving your community?”
Locals had always known that the town had a lot of overzealous police. Investigative photographer/editor John Gibson said that when he lived in nearby Tyler, Texas, 20 years ago, he remembered Coffee City’s reputation as a speed trap town. During reporting trips in Coffee City, residents told KHOU that the small town seemed to have an unusually high number of officers.
Few could have guessed that there were 50 of them. That number, Gibson said, initially didn’t make sense. The department didn’t even have enough police cars for that many officers. Everything started to fall into place when KHOU discovered that the department had a division of officers working out of Houston, calling people with outstanding warrants. They were paid for every case they collected despite state law requiring that officers be paid minimum wage.
“A lot of the officers were never even in the city,” Gibson said. “They’re doing this warrant division, work-from-home thing.”
KHOU aired its Coffee City investigation over the course of three days last August. They had to move quickly after interviewing Portillo for fear that he would resign or the situation would otherwise change before they could go on air, Gibson said. Part of the challenge of putting the three-part series together was keeping the message simple.
“This project was a little ironic in that what was interesting technically wasn’t illegal. Them being a ‘speed trap town’ — perfectly legal. Them having 50 officers on the roster — while it’s unusual, not illegal,” Gibson said. “When we get to part three, what is illegal is they’re not paying the minimum wage. That’s technically against the rules. And how interesting is that?”
To hook the viewer and “bring some energy” to the piece, Gibson wanted to start with a trope that everyone could relate to — the small town that will pull you over. He worked to make sure that the headline — a town of 250 with 50 cops — would stay with the viewer no matter how far into the weeds the story got as it explored the various issues with the department.
The reaction was swift. Within two weeks, the city council had voted to fire Portillo and disband the entire police department. In December, Portillo was given six felony charges for tampering with government records by failing to disclose his DWI charge on his Coffee City job application. Several other former Coffee City officers face felony charges.
Executive producer of investigations Jennifer Cobb said she has never seen a story she worked on cause such rapid change. The investigation’s success — despite her team’s initial doubts — is a reminder to take a chance on stories that strike her curiosity, Cobb said.
“I use it as my reminder now to keep an open mind if I’m curious about something even though it may not seem like the sure thing or the story that makes ‘sense,’” Cobb said. “It’s good to take a breath sometimes and take chances on stories and see where they’ll take you.”
KHOU’s investigation won two national Edward R. Murrow Awards and a Poynter Journalism Prize in local accountability reporting. The latter award, which is sponsored by The Seattle Times and carries the name of Times CEO Frank A. Blethen, recognizes journalism that holds local authorities accountable for their actions (or inaction) and comes with a $2,500 prize.
Since the story aired, Rogalski has heard from viewers around the world. Several Coffee City townspeople, including the mayor, thanked him. “He said, ‘This has been kind of brewing in the background, but we never really had the time or the wherewithal or the resources or the energy to do a deep dive of our own.’”
Some viewers warned of other Texas police departments with similar issues, and KHOU did a subsequent story on “wandering officers” in Houston who had found employment at police departments despite being dishonorably charged from their previous law enforcement jobs.
“I really think it (the Coffee City investigation) struck a nerve with people in today’s day and age of concerns about law enforcement officials adhering to the oath that they took,” Rogalski said. “That’s an issue that transcends geography, whether you’re in tiny Coffee City, Texas, or Anywhere, USA. People can relate to that.”
Read about more Poynter Prize winners
Well as good as this find is, there’s plenty more where that comes from in Houston. Which is where KHOU should have started researching along time ago